Author Description

Jean, a young deaf-mute, orphaned at birth, lives in Paris in the 1780s. Hired to work at a woodworking shop, he is confronted with the harsh realities which the deaf in his society face. Jean has the luck of meeting those who are going to change the lives of deaf people in French society: the Abbé de l'Épée, Pierre Desloges, and many others. At once the protagonist of his own story and of that of his community, Jean is also a privileged witness to the historical events which will shake the France of the Ancien Régime.--Cataloger's translation of blurb.